The relation between pre-schoolers’ fantasy and reality understanding and family background

Saulė Raižienė, Gabija Jarašiūnaitė

Abstract

This paper analyzes if pre-schoolers can distinguish fantasy from reality and what factors influence it. Garner, Curenton, Taylor (2005) method was used in this study. The participants were 48 preschoolers aged from 2 years and 9 months old till 7 years and 3 months old. We tried to evaluate if they could distinguish the events which happen in the real world and which happen only in fantasy and what arguments they use when giving their explanation. The study shows that age is an important factor in fantasy-reality understanding. Older pre-schoolers make fewer mistakes when making the decision on what is real and what is fantasy. Also, they more often give a right explanation about their decision, what shows that they have already gained strong knowledge about what is real in life and what is only a fantasy. In this study family background, like parents’ education and children's birth order, was also analyzed, but it was not related with children's fantasy-reality understanding.